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Saturday, May 31, 2014

Croque Monsieur is nothing a French sandwich prepared with grilled ham and cheese. It is usually prepared in French cafés and bars as a quick snacks. The name comes from the verb Croquer which means to crunch and the word monsieur means Mister. A Croque monsieur served with a fried egg or poached egg on the top is known as croque madame. My today's post is a vegetarian version of this famous French cheesy sandwich. Grilled zucchinis slices are used instead of ham, this vegetarian croque monsieur is our this month's challenge of International Food Challenge ,a monthly event started by two wonderful food bloggers Sara and Shobana,we are landing towards North American Californian cuisine.The host of this month Joanne chosed various California dishes and i picked this vegetarian croque monsieur from her recipe choice.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Conchas is a Mexican sweet bread, the name conchas comes from their sugar topping which resembles as seashell. Conchas have sugary topping which goes almost like cookie dough, you can add any flavor to this topping either by adding vanilla extract, chocolate or cinnamon. This conchas is one of the most famous Mexican pastries and widely known in United states. Conchas bread are very easy to make when compared to few breads. Usually Conchas are loaded with eggs but for this month's Baking Eggless,a monthly event owned by Gayathri,i tried my hands in making those egg loaded conchas as eggless, trust me they came out simply prefect without eggs.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Karunkuruvai, is an another variety of rice i got through Kalpana of Life with Spices, she pampered me with a huge bag of Organic stuffs when i met her during my stay in India. We had loads of fun together and you might have already noticed i prepared some spongy idlies with an another unknown (personally for me) rice called Kattuyanam rice, check my post of idlies i prepared using Kattuyanam rice to get a better idea about this traditional rice cultivated in Southern part of India especially in Tamilnadu.Today's post is going to be a breakfast or dinner dish aka dosas i prepared few days back with Karunkuruvai rice, this rice looks bit dark when compared to other rices and tastewise nothing different from the usual one, but healthwise they have many interesting facts, actually i loved making this dosas out of this wonderful organic rice.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

You dont have oven?.. No problem but still you can make cakes..
You dont like pressure cooker cake?..Dont worry this cake is for you.
You dont know how to bake cakes without oven?? Trust me this cake is for you.
You have a sandwich maker and dunno how to make use of it?? Dont worry after going through this post, am sure you will use your sleeping sandwich maker atleast once or twice a week.

A pillowy, softy cake with sandwich maker,yes you can make it with less efforts and with usual ingredients, you can make some spongy triangle cakes for your Sunday brunch, for an evening snacks and why not for a quick dessert with your kitchen gadget aka sandwich maker. Anything is possible with this way of making cake with sandwich maker. Just prepare the cake batter and cook it with your sandwich maker, sounds very easy rite.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Chocolates, this magic word makes us very happy especially me and my kids. Chocolates in anything is our favourite. I think its my zillionth time am saying chocolate are our family favourite.Whenever its comes to bread baking, i love to make my dose of sweet breads with chocolates definitely at home. Sweet breads suits prefectly for evening snacks especially to kids, after their long hectic day they need something sweet with enough calorie to boost themselves. Storebought breads are loaded with many preservatives and am trying to keep them away from us,eventhough sometimes its hard to keep away the temping high sugary bakes as we have loads of bakeries in each and every corner of this city.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Bread baking at home is one of my stress burster, i love to experiment with my bread dough but still i have to succeed couple of method of making bread at home like sourdough. However i love baking bread at home with my usual way of making bread dough. Till now i feel very comfort with brioche dough and i love to bake bread with this rich dough. Since few months for some reason i couldnt able to participate Defi Boulange, a fabulous bread baking event by Nadia and Manue.Eventhough this challenge was for the month of April,i dont want to miss their incredible challenge, actually the idea of making brioche lamb pulled me. Yes,i prepared this lamb brioche twice coz my first trial turned almost like a turtle lamb which was quite funny to see but tastewise nothing to say they came out just awesome.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Petit Pains au lait which means small or little milk breads, these bread rolls are our favourite. Usully we get them from bakeries or else from stores.My kids love this milky oblong bread rolls with nutella spread or else simply with butter and jam. Seriously my kids can have them everyday without any fuss for their breakfast or for their snacks with their dose of warm chocolate or milk. These small milk bread rolls are very simple to bake at home. The dough for making these pains au lait is slightly rich but not as rich as brioche dough. The dough is prepared only with milk and water or anything else as liquid is avoided for making this cute bread rolls.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Whoever love paneer will definitely love Paneer butter masala, and whoever love cauliflower will definitely love this lipsmacking gobi paneer masala. Yes trust me this gobi paneer masala is absolutely fingerlicking if you serve them simply with rotis or naan. Actually i never thought to making out this much rich looking gravy with cauliflower earlier. While going through Pari's space, i got hooked to this cauliflower butter masala and i tried it at home two days back for our dinner. Trust me, my lil one who loves cauliflower in fritters enjoyed thoroughly this gobi butter masala. Obviously this dish is approved by everyone at home.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Kattuyanam, this is one of the variety of rice cultivated in South India especially in Tamil Nadu. Kattuyanam is one among the traditional rice varieties.Kattuyanam, this rice variety help peoples to control diabetics, usually people used to consume kasayam made out of this rice bran but still you can also make idlies,dosas out of this incredible grain.Its seems there are more than five thousand varieties of rice was available in Tamilnadu. But currently we are able to save nearly 200 varieties, each rice variety is unique in their own way. Some varieties of rice grow even without water, some can stand flood and some can stand heavy winsds. Somehow high nutritional value rich traditional rice varieties started loosing their existence slowly when peoples started consuming the usual raw rice. Thank god, now Organic farmers are there to bring more traditional rice varieties for the benefit of us.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Paneer, this fantastic Indian cottage cheese is our family favourite. We love this calcium rich Indian cheese in anything as anything. Obviously my fridge or either my freezer will definitely have enough paneer cubes to cook up. If you have paneer in your fridge trust me you make a couple of delicious dishes within few minutes. Since this cottage cheese is quite versatile you can do anything with it. From starter to dessert, you can make fantabulous dishes out of this Indian cheese.If you go through my recipe index, am sure you can see many varieties of dishes i have cooked out with this paneer.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Do you want to know about Rendez Vous with a Foodie event happening twice a month in my space? its all about the newbie blogger who started crawling in this immense virtual world. Every 7th and 20th of the month i'll be inviting newbie bloggers from this bloggy world to write a guest post in my space.It can be anything, we dont have any specific cuisine or any specific theme. Obviously a couple of my fellow bloggers have participated and did their guest post since few months.I have to say a big thanks to each and everyone for being this much generous with me. Trust me, i never thought that this event will bring me many new bloggers to share their guest posts hee and it crossed already a year of celebration.

Today's guest host, i came to know her through a challenge and one fine day she pinged me asking whether she can make a guest post for this event, i immediately said Yes. She was kind enough to send me

her guest post very much quickly eventhough i asked her to send me just few days before her slot.She is none other than Arthy Shama of Cook With Arthy Shama.Arthy shares both vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes in her space.Actually i have couple of favourites from her space,few from her's are Boti Kebab,Watermelon Like Cake and Coffee Rolls.Her bakes rocks and am sure you will definitely enjoy going through her space as she shares many delicious and beautiful homely dishes.

Monday, May 19, 2014

After oranges, our favourite fruits is clementines, this incredible fruits are loaded with vitamin C.Regular consumption of clementine fills your body with vitamin C, which helps to keep various diseases like high blood presure and hardening of arteries etc. Vitamin C also play an important role in boosting the human immune system and fighting cardiovascular disorders.Do you know clementines contains high concentrations of dietary fibers which ensure the smooth function of our digestive system.Obviously we try to keep this fantastic vitamin C rich frutis quite often in our diet especially while winter is around to boost ourselves to tolerate the weather.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Pina colada is a sweet and rum based cocktail made usually with rum, cream of coconut,pineapple juice served either blended or shaken with ice. Since i chosed mocktails as this week's theme for blogging marathon am posting today a non alcholic delightful pina colada. Do you know, pina colada has been the official beverage of Puerto Rica since 1978.Coconut and pineapple blended together makes this incredible mocktail and trust me we enjoyed thoroughly. With loads of icecubes, eventhough the weather was super down and nasty we couldnt stop ourselves having this beautiful drink.

I went for storebought coconut milk and fresh pineapple chunks which i blended together as fine paste with a scoop of vanilla icecream, the addition of icecream turned this mocktail seriously very delicious. A super creamy mocktail to enjoy thoroughly while the weather is too hot,an incredible thirsty quencher definitely.Whoever love this exotic combination of drink will definitely go crazy if they taste this delicious mocktail.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#40.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Weather is still cold and rainy but sometimes Sun god show his head to kick start our lazy gloomy days. However i dont bother to make some fresh juices or smoothies to keep ourself cool while the weather was quite chilled though.Actually we dont need any excuse to enjoy fresh drinks or smoothies. Recently one of my trial with amla aka gooseberries is this incredible punch. Look at the picture, and tell me how wonderful this drink looks and trust me for the taste i can say that the mild sourness and the sweetness of gooseberries along the rose flavour of the rose syrup will definitely take you to an another world. Yes seriously this punch tastes fantabulous and they were refreshing as well.

This week is going to be mocktails or non alcholic drinks as i chosed as mocktail delights as theme for this week's blogging marathon. Obviously the next two days of my posts are going to be interesting and different mocktails from me, which can have their important place in your dining table if you are planning to make some mocktails for a lunch or dinner party...Sending this post to Ahlan Ramadan-The Healthy Way.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#40.

Friday, May 16, 2014

After a successful start, am posting my second post for a beautiful event i have created along with few of my blogger buddies.I named this event as Shhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge and we are having fun in guessing other's secret ingredients through the pictures each of us have been sharing in our FB group. Trust me its seriously very hard to find out and each of us have done an excellent job by creating delicious dishes from their secret ingredients which is still a mystery for us.Today you can able to see a couple of bloggers posting their beautiful creations they prepared specially for this event.

Its really wonderful to see all the participants took more pleasure to dish out their fabulous dishes with their respective secret ingredients. For this month's challenge, my pair is Hema of Aromatic Cooking. She suggested Pineapple and almonds as my secret ingredients, trust me i couldnt imagine a second that she will be giving me this combination as secret ingredients. Somehow i want to make something different than making a usual cake or sweet out of these both ingredients. Then after few hesitation and going through many recipe suggestions by my daughter finally i ended up myself to a delicious pannacotta with pineapple topped with crunchy almond pralines. Trust me or not this pannacotta rocks, this pannacotta tastes fabulous and definitely a super refreshing dessert to enjoy thoroughly after a heavy lunch. Am sure this fruity pannacotta makes a prefect light dessert to enjoy during a party menu or for a simple get together.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Seedai,these crispy balls are traditionally prepared during Gokulastami festival. Usually i make uppu seedai which goes for the savoury version and dunno why i never tried making sweet seedais. Making seedais at home is definitely a tricky one, the most freaky part is while frying these balls coz sometimes they can burst. Actually all depends upon the rice flour you go for making this crispy balls.Either homemade or store bought rice flour, you need to sieve and dry roast rice flour in simmer until a nice aroma comes from, then you can proceed making the balls which you need to dry a bit by spreading them over a paper towel or over a muslin cloth to remove the moisture of these balls, if you follow these both methods am sure your seedais wont burst at all. I learned everything by my experience, obviously after so many flops one can learn by themselves na.

For our this month's Indian Cooking Challenge,a monthly event where we cook dishes from various regions of India.For this month's challenge, Srivalli gave us to cook both uppu seedai and vella seedai, but i picked the sweet seedai to cook for this month's challenge, finally i prepared these dangerously addictive sweet deep fried balls at home. They came out extremely prefect, we couldnt stop munching them.Thanks Valli for pulling me to make these sweet version.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Whenever i go to Indian groceries, two vegetables i never forget to pick is okra and snakegourd. Dunno why these both veggies are our favourite and i do varieties of dishes out of them.I always love to cook snakegourd with coconut but this time this kootu is cooked completely with coconut milk. Yes this paal kootu goes for freshly squeezed or store bought tinned coconut milk, its all depends upon you. I prepared this paal kootu few days back for our lunch and served simply with a spicy potato fry and rice. Trust me, the sweetness of the coconut milk and the spiciness of the potato fry compliments very well together and we enjoyed thoroughly our lunch.

This paal kootu goes seriously for easily available ingredients and nothing much to chop apart from the snakegourd and onions. Also this dish is very mildly spiced just with green chillies,kids can have this dish happily with rice without any complaints. A quick dish gets ready very easily and am sure you will definitely have a satisfying,filling lunch with this fingerlicking kootu.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Evening snacks are very important for me especially for my kids,kids will always come back home after a long busy day at school obviously they will expect to have something filling and satisfying as evening snacks.Evening snacks are more challenging than main dishes for me, usually i'll try to give healthy and hassle free evening snacks but sometime i do go for fatty evening snacks depending upon my mood and the ingredients available in fridge. One of my recent trial is this just 2 ingredients evening snacks. Yes this Jam puffs goes for store bought puff pastry sheet and few teaspoons of strawberry jam. Once baked,you will get some flaky,fruity,jammy puffs to enjoy with your cup of coffee or tea or else simply with some warm milk.

Puffs, this flaky snacks goes obviously for puff pastry sheet which is easily available here and i'll always stock them in my fridge as they are handy and very useful to make many evening snacks out of it.Coming to this jam puffs, they are just prefect for an evening snacks which gets ready easily,trust these jammy puffs are seriously very addictive and kids will go crazy if they saw this flaky puffs. I prepared this puffs just with strawberry jam, but still you can replace it simply with different jams or else with nutella.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#40.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Cashews,almonds and pistachios are my favourite nuts,my pantry will always have bags of these nuts.My betterhalf love to munch nuts for his evening snacks,obviously i'll try to add nuts in most of the evening snacks i usually prepare at home. Recently i prepared some roasted cashewnuts in oven with simple Indian spices, trust me they came out extremely fabulous, very addictive with less oil, better than the deep fried ones and definitely hard to resist. I prepared this oven roasted masala cashewnuts with a cup of cashews, but trust me they vanished very quickly and we couldnt stop munching them once they gets ready. Better to munch them when they gets cool completely, you can have this fantastic masala cashewnuts either as snacks or as appetizier for a party menu, however we enjoyed having these crispy nuts for our evening snacks.

I spiced this cashews with red chilly powder, chaat masala and amchur powder with salt and a teaspoon of oil. You can add your favourite spices to spice up these cashews in case if you dont like chaat masala or amchur powder.Am running my 2nd week of blogging marathon with evening snacks as theme,obviously for the next two days i'll be posting different evening snacks.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#40..Sending to my event CWS- Cashew guest hosted by Sathya Priya of My Kitchen Odyssey.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Red Velvet cake or cupcakes is a cake with either a dark red, bright red or red brown colour, its can be prepared as layer cake or simply as individual cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing. The red colour of this red velvet cake or cupcakes is often prepared by adding beetroot or red food colouring. For our this month's Home Baker's Challenge, a monthly baking event where we bake varieties of baked goodies, the host of this month is Shazzy and she suggested Red Velvet cake,Red Velvet cheesecake and oreo stuffed red velvet crinkles along with vegan version. Obviously i picked red velvet cake and baked them as cupcakes instead of making a cake also i halved the quantities given in the original recipe. Trust me these cuties are dangerously addictive and we loved having with our cup of tea for our evening snacks while my kids enjoyed having these cuppies with their cup of milk. We couldnt resist licking the cream cheese frosting.

Cupcakes or cakes, these red velvet bakes are seriously very attractive and you cant stop yourself having them.Apart from red food colouring, these cupcakes goes really for easy ingredients, if dont like or dont want to use red food colouring, you can replace them very well with beetroot puree which gives an excellent red colour to this bakes.Am running my 2nd week of blogging marathon with evening snacks as theme,obviously for the next two days i'll be posting different evening snacks.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#40.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Am celebrating virtually a birthday of my fellow blogger aka sister, she is none other than Divya of Divya's Culinary Journey, the bonding between few bloggers are seriously very close to my heart and one among those wonderful blogger i crossed and get connected through this virtual world is Divya, she is a simple, very easy going gal who is very modest,down to earth and very friendly sister, i treasure her relation very much. We had loads of laughters and fun together whenever we chat together. Today is a big day for her and she is celebrating her birthday with her parents and her brother in her native. Have a wonderful birthday Sis and am sure this birthday brings you loads of beautiful things in your life.

Divya,a sister can be a good friend too, and definitely you are.I am so thankful to God to have a sister like you in my life. Wishing you a wonderful birthday and celebrate your birthday in a big way.

To celebrate Divya's birthday virtually, with few friends we choosed to make dishes from starters to desserts. Obviously i went for this patterned chocolate cake.Swiss roll or cream roll is a kind of sponge cake roll stuffed with either whipped cream,fruits or buttercream or sometimes simply with jam. A thin layer of batter prepared with flour,eggs and sugar baked in a sheet pan, spread with jam or buttercream, rolled up and served as round slices makes this roll. I have prepared this roll with usual measurements i go for making swiss rolls and prepared them as patterned chocolate roll, filled with whipped cream and chopped fresh strawberries. Chocolate roll with strawberries and whipped cream, watelse we need.Heaven in Earth definitely.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Twice a month am introducing newbie bloggers to this immense blogging virtual world, just to showcase their blogs with their guest posts they prepred specially for me and i named the event as Rendez vous with a foodie. Many new fellow bloggers came towards me to join this event and shared their fabulous dishes since ever i started this event. Happy that this event is going successfully since a year. I came to know more about my guest hosts through their replies they shared for my questions along with their guestposts. Each and every posts of my guest hosts are unique in their own way.

Today's host is one of my recent favourite blogger and whenever i go to her space, she speaks through her post and definitely with her beautiful clicks. Aparna Bhat of Flavors And Colors is my today's guest host, she is a Doctor by profession which i came to know the day she sent me her post with the questions i asked her to know more about this wonderful person behind Flavors And Colors, also while chatting with her i came to know that is a cousin of one of my blogger buddy who carries the same name too. Just go through her space, you will get to see a good collection of beautiful dishes you can dish out without any struggle. I have couple of favourites from her blog and trust me you will definitely enjoy going through her space.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

30 days 30 states, that too Indian states, its was our April month's blogging marathon's theme and we a group of food bloggers finished successfully this non stop long marathon with beautiful dishes from 30 states of India. Actually this long marathon was decided during october, but i couldnt organised earlier coz of my 3 months stay in India, i cooked everything just in March for April's long marathon. Thank god i finished this awesome Indian Food odyssey successfully with 30 beautiful dishes. We learned so many dishes and many interesting way of cooking followed by the natives of other states. Here comes my recap of this Indian Food Odyssey.